As part of Vietnam Week, April 8-15, there are activities taking place in hundreds of communities across the nation. Everything from teach-ins to demonstrations have occurred giving evidence of increased opposition to the war in Vietnam.
Locally, Vietnam Week began early with a scheduled debate between the Wayne Committee to End the War in Vietnam and Wayne University Young Republican Club on April 5th.
The debate began on a strange note. Leaflets written by the Young Republican Club greeted the audience. The Club stated they were disassociating themselves from the debate because of the strong Breakthrough ties of their speaker, Pat Tifer.
Despite the lack of sponsorship, the debate took place and went as could be expected. Tifer waved the flag and talked about American honor and “communist aggression” and Irving Kirsch, the WCEWV debater, easily encountered his arguments bringing strong appreciation from the highly participant crowd.
The only real surprise came when Jerry Younkins, Detroit poet, jumped up during the question and answer period, his hair flowing to his shoulders and beads dangling from his neck, and shoved a picture of a child burned with U.S. napalm into the face of the startled warmonger.
Rifer responded with quotes of Vietcong atrocities and Younkins responded by jumping out of his seat again declaring the speaker should be committed while he stalked from the room to the applause of the crowd.
The following day the Wayne Vietnam Committee held a referendum on the Wayne campus that asked whether or not the students favored an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. This was the same question that
had received a 40% yes vote from Dearborn voters in last year’s election.
After a day-long balloting the tabulation of votes showed 1,070 favoring withdrawal and 1,001 opposed to it.
An attempt by the school paper, THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, to minimize the results resulted in a front page article claiming the Wayne Committee had used sloppy voting procedures and that multiple voting was possible. To prove their point they sent over two of their reporters who each voted three times.
This reporter talked to one of the reporters Brenda Marquis, who said she had voted for the proposition three times and the other staff member, J.M. Domzlski had voted against the same number of times.
Irving Kirsch of the Wayne Committee, felt that the results were valid. He said, “The only documented evidence we have of vote fraud was practiced by members of COLLEGIAN Staff.” Mrs. Marquis admitted she had no evidence of others cheating but said she felt that others could have easily done so.
The next day University officials condemned the COLLEGIAN’S “expose” as “irresponsible” and said that every precaution was taken to assure that the poll was legal. The vice-chairman of the Student – Faculty Council, Dr. Richard F. Ward said, “I feel that attempts by the Collegian to interfere with conduct of a reasonably conceived and scholarly effort is an infringement on the basic academic freedoms of the members of the community.”
Activities on Saturday, April 8th were initiated by a group of students from Willington College in Ohio. They coordinated a drive to collect money for medical supplies to be used in the relief of war victims in Vietnam. The money will be delivered to the Canadian Friends Service Committee who will be evenly distributed between the three Red Crosses operating in Vietnam; those of north and south Vietnam and of the National Liberation Front.
About 95 persons led by a delegation from Willington College crossed into Canada traveling across the Ambassador bridge. The participants made the one mile walk across the windy bridge, held a brief vigil on the Canadian side and then returned. Almost $540 was delivered bringing the total funds collected to over $1,000. Tim Zook, coordinator of the walk said he thought the walk and the project were very successful.
Once back on the Detroit side, the marchers, encouraged by their success, decided to hold another walk May 7 after more funds are collected. Those interested in contributing and/or participating call John Hawsley at 833-0387.
Later that night found Detroit’s Cobo Hall the scene of a mass rally to support the Spring Mobilization. Although the featured speaker, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, an aide to Martin Luther King, was unable to attend, Cong. John Conyers, Jr. (1st Dist.) spoke in his place to a crowd of over 300.
Conyers, who has voted against all appropriations for the Vietnam war, said that more and more people were becoming opposed to the war and that isolation felt by many in the antiwar movement is over. He said that many in the labor and civil rights movement were now beginning to speak out against the war.
Conyers added that Negroes were beginning to realize that the war prevented them from achieving their goals and that anti-poverty funds were being diverted to go towards the cost of war.
The Congressman said, “I favor scrapping the draft system.” The American people are beginning to be conditioned for a lot more Vietnams.
Sharing the platform with Rep. Conyers was John Anderson, chairman of Citizens for Peace in Vietnam, who said that our social system breeds war and called for the peace movement to prepare for the ’68 elections with a principled peace campaign.
Other speakers included Myra Wolfgang, president of the Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant Workers Union; Eve Rosen of the Student Mobilization Committee; Nadine Brown, Secretary of First District Democratic Party; Rev. David Gracie of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church; and William Bung, Wayne University professor of Geography.
Related
See Fifth Estate’s Vietnam Resource Page.